The IHII was established in October, 2004 with the approval of the University of Texas System and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Its mission is to facilitate and enhance the activities of existing centers and programs at UTMB that focus on research in the area of infection and immunity. These include the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, the Center for Hepatitis Research, the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Tropical Diseases, and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Arboviruses and Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses. IHII also manages educational and training activities in infection and immunity supported by the James McLaughlin Endowment. As the third institute on the UTMB campus, it is in addition the university’s locus for administration of the Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), a $167-million, state-of-the-art, high-containment biomedical research facility now under construction with major grant support from the National Institute of Health.

The aims of the Institute are to enhance and facilitate program development in the fields of infection and immunity. An important goal is to better coordinate infectious disease and immunology research activities on the UTMB campus.

IHII is working with Facilities Operations Management (FOAM) to manage the GNL construction and will administer future GNL research operations. IHII currently manages UTMB’s existing BSL3 and BSL4 biocontainment laboratory resources, provides programmatic oversight of UTMB’s select agent program, and stewardship of the McLaughlin Endowment which supports training in the fields of infection and immunity.

The research activities of the Institute are carried out through its constituent centers and programs, with Institute committees established to provide program direction and oversight of biocontainment research activities.

Stanley M. Lemon, M.D.